The $40 Security Solution for Colorado Schools—That Would Actually Work

We don’t need Wayne LaPierre’s crazy and expensive idea for Congress “to put armed police officers in every single school in this nation.”

Colorado law already allows schools to invite those with lawfully permitted concealed handguns into their halls—if schools do it the right way.

Statute 18-12-214 (in Part 2 of Article 12) states:

(1) (a) A permit to carry a concealed handgun authorizes the permittee to carry a concealed handgun in all areas of the state, except as specifically limited in this section. . . .

(3) A permit issued pursuant to this part 2 does not authorize a person to carry a concealed handgun onto the real property, or into any improvements erected thereon, of a public elementary, middle, junior high, or high school; except that:

(b) A permittee who is employed or retained by contract by a school district as a school security officer may carry a concealed handgun onto the real property, or into any improvement erected thereon, of a public elementary, middle, junior high, or high school while the permittee is on duty . . .

Obviously this law does not apply to private schools, only to “public” ones. So private schools may already invite armed administrators, teachers, parents, and guests to carry concealed handguns on campus. What about “public” schools?

Colorado law allows “public” schools to bring in “security officers” “retained by contract” by the district. The law is non-specific as to how much a security officer must be paid. So my plan is simply for a school to hire 40 (or so) concealed-carry permit holders—parents, retired police officers, military veterans, etc.—at a dollar each per year, to take shifts patrolling the school. I pulled 40 out of the air because that would enable two people to take a shift for a single day each month. Essentially this would be a volunteer service, but the participants would be officially declared “contracted security officers” for purposes of complying with the law.

A better solution would be to revise the law giving individual “public” schools the authority to allow those with concealed carry permits to carry their handguns into schools. Even better would be to allow anyone with a concealed carry permit to carry their handgun into any “public” school—as Utah already allows.

Of course, I am a big advocate of good training (such as my father Linn provides in Grand Junction) for everyone who carries a concealed handgun.

We all know that allowing more responsible adults to carry their concealed handguns into the schools would make schools safer. Even leftists who decry the idea know that it would work. (That said, we ought not lose context about this; the chances of being victimized by a mass murderer at a school remain extremely low, despite the high-profile atrocities.) We all also know that Colorado’s “public” schools probably will not allow more responsible adults to carry their guns inside the schools. The politics simply won’t allow it—even though it would obviously improve safety at minimal cost.

Update: As has become evident in the comments, obviously willing and trained teachers and administrators could be declared “security officers” as well. Indeed, if ONLY teachers and administrators were allowed to carry concealed handguns in their schools, that would be a huge help, again for minimal expense.